Two Cleveland, Tennessee men have been charged in the death of an inmate at the Bradley County jail. According to a TBI press release, on July 10, 2023, thirty-year-old Eric Means was found unresponsive in his cell. Means later died of a fentanyl overdose. Agents developed information that inmate Jonathan Bankston brought fentanyl pills into the facility and was selling them inside the jail. The investigation further revealed that Jonathan Hilliard, who was working as a trusty inside the jail, had taken one of those pills from Bankston and provided it to Mr. Means.
The Bradley County Grand Jury returned indictments charging 35-year-old Jonathan Bankston (DOB 01/29/1988) and 31-year-old Jonathan Bryan Hilliard each with one count of Manufacture, Sale or Delivery of Schedule II Drug, Schedule II Drug in a Penal Institution, and Second Degree Murder. Hilliard, who was already incarcerated in the Bradley County Jail, was served with the indictment, and Bankston was arrested Tuesday night (1/9/2024) and booked into the Bradley County Jail.